…To provide 500 direct jobs
From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has inaugurated a 60,000-metric tonne capacity Edo State Fertiliser and Chemical Company Limited in Auchi, Etsako West Local Government Area of the state.
Inaugurating the plant, yesterday, Osinbajo described agriculture as the abandoned pathway to Nigeria’s economic diversification from oil and national prosperity.
Besides, he identified the lack of access to relevant inputs by farmers as one of the major challenges hindering the full optimisation of the sector.
He also described the project as a distinguished enterprise that would not only create, at least, 500 direct jobs and several more indirect jobs in Auchi, but also, bring the country closer to self-sufficiency in fertiliser production.
“This fertiliser plant has been recently rehabilitated as a public-private partnership. A clear objective of establishing this plant is to boost farming activities and the agric value chain nationwide. This investment is a direct response to the Federal Government’s strategy of growing the Nigerian economy on a zero oil assumption.
“Agriculture is that well-known but abandoned pathway for our economic diversification and national prosperity. The fundamental constraint to optimising agricultural is access to input – fertiliser being a fundamental input. On the average, the Nigerian farmer uses something in the order of 13 kilogramme per hectare of fertiliser, compared with the world average of 100 kilograme per hectare,” the vice president said.
He noted that the project, which is in line with the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative of President Muhammadu Buhari, would boost food production and reduce food prices and enhance food security in Nigeria, and added that it would also make import unnecessary, as the plant would help the country conserve hard-earned foreign exchange.
The vice president explained that was the reason Buhari negotiated, in December, 2016, “what is now referred to as the NPK fertiliser initiative, working in particular with the Moroccan president and aimed at achieving local production at one million metric tonnes of NPK fertiliser.
“It was calculated to reduce cost and deliver finished products at between N5,000 to N5,500 per bag. And this, of course, was to bring down prices which ranged from N8,000 to N9,000, sometimes, N13,000,” he said.
In his comments, Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, said the project is a milestone in the history of the state, after it was left moribund for 14 years.
He explained that the fertiliser and chemical blending plant, being the only one in the South South and South East region, farmers would no longer source fertilisers outside the zone but access the locally-produced ones at affordable rates.
Managing Director of the company, Mr. Rau Sawara, said 95 per cent of the workforce would come from the state and commended the federal and the Edo State governments for encouraging investments in the agricultural sector.